A Laneway Addition Has Given This Victorian Terrace New Life
Architecture
Large artwork by Arryn Snowball.
The kitchen/link connects the existing house to the new addition.
The kitchen/link looks out to a new internal courtyard appreciated by the existing house and addition.
The addition and internal courtyard are both oriented north-east for optimum light.
A bench seat opens to the courtyard.
Landscape design by Amanda Oliver Gardens.
The addition includes a lounge area, dining area, powder room and garage on the ground floor.
‘One element that took a lot of attention to detail to get right was the design of the kitchen… This took a lot of careful planning and millimetre precision to get right,’ says Antony Martin, director of MRTN Architects.
Steps define the journey from old to new.
The stairs leading to the addition upper storey.
Contrasting timbers add warmth to the interiors.
The addition engages with the rear laneway.
‘The double frontage to the rear laneway required thought as how to create access to natural light while preserving privacy inside,’ says Antony.
An extensive photographic survey of the surrounding laneways informed the material palette.
‘Because the addition identifies more directly with the laneway than the street frontage, we took our references from the various adhoc additions in Carlton that dated from the 60s through to the 80s,’ says Antony.
The illuminated house from the internal courtyard at night.
This Carlton terrace house was always solid, but its single-storey and single-fronted floor plan lacked the living spaces and natural light desired by its owners.
As a family of four including two teenage sons, the owners knew their needs may change over time (to accommodate adult children or ageing parents living in the home, for example) so they required a flexible architectural approach. Enter MRTN Architects.
Recognising the structural integrity of the existing home, MRTN Architects devised an almost independent addition, connected to the main house by a kitchen/linkway alongside a large internal courtyard, both of which are oriented north-east.
Antony Martin, director of MRTN Architects, explains the approach, ‘We took the unusual move of locating the new floor area to the [very] rear of the site, rather than merely extending the existing footprint. This opened up a number of opportunities for us in creating a north-facing living space and bedroom; creating secondary entry and identity for the home off the rear laneway; and the ability to create an addition that can also have an independence to the original home.’
Indeed, the addition engages with a laneway behind the home and comprises living areas and garage on the lower level, with a new bedroom, en suite, and study above.
As the clients’ children age, or older parents move into the home, the new addition provides a flexible space for near-independent living.
Visually, MRTN Architects looked at the existing Victorian-era character of Carlton, as well as its recent architectural history. Antony explains, ‘We were actually more interested in the decades-long history of “gentrification” in the area, rather than the “original” period of the home.
‘Because the addition identifies more directly with the laneway than the street frontage, we took our references from the various ad hoc additions in Carlton that dated from the ’60s through to the ’80s.
‘These examples of alternation and addition that are easily visible from the surrounding laneways give lessons in history about the changing nature of the area and are as relevant, in our opinion, as the Victorian period of the original home.’
An extensive photographic survey of the surrounding laneways informed the material palette, referencing rounded masonry corners used to avoid car damage around tight corners, 1980s glass bricks, and the red bricks of older stable structures. ‘Generally we liked the way these materials were assembled together with various materials used at once, either by design or by accretion,’ says Antony.
The updated house caters to the clients both now and into the future. Antony says the most rewarding aspect of the project is being able to sit in the sun while feeling miles away from the inner-city, on the owners’ doorstep.